Words are powerful things.
I bet you still remember:
*the horrid nickname someone called you in high school (until the day you went after him with a baseball bat in PE class) that still makes you cringe…
*a compliment unlooked for that made your day 5 years ago…
*the first time someone special said, “I love you.” (PS-Don’t say thank you back)
I passionately love words and books and reading. But I rarely think about decorating with them. However, my oldest is reaching the age where a “text rich” environment is essential to his development as a reader. Cross that with some more fall decorations and I have a cute project I can’t wait to show off. It all started with some pumpkins made from grapevines and came from the Target dollar spot! How splendid is that!
But when I got them home and put them up on the little shelf I like to pretend is a mantle, the pumpkins were a little bland. Then I got the brilliant, wholly unoriginal idea to put a verse in a frame on the mantle (yes, I am still calling it a mantle in hopes I may someday have one to decorate;)
I found this cheap little guy at Target for, yes, you read correctly:$1.74. You can’t get much better than that!
But black plastic is so boring when you can pull out your favorite can of spray paint andturn it, that’s right folks!, oil rubbed bronze. (I will find any excuse I can to use this stuff!)
Going with the whole harvest theme for fall, I found the perfect verse and thought I was done. But I cannot just leave well enough alone. So after debating with myself (should I? Maybe not? Might as well go for it) I decided to decoupage the frame. Decoupage is a fancy word that means gluing an object to something and then putting more glue on top to seal it. Mod Podge is the best product for this and comes in many different finishes (including SPARKLE, which I used on my wedding shoes;)
I started with strips of text but it didn’t look random enough, so I cut the strips (using my fantastic new little Exacto knife. I know scissors would work, but Exacto knifes are much more fun;) into triangles and pasted them down going all different directions and it looked much better. Notice the little leaf thingy in the corner? I actually didn’t plan that but it looks like I did! I hot glued some twine at the edges to cover the edges/make it look a bit more country/fallish.
Akk! I love it!
Here’s the best part of this project: The text print came from a beautiful copy of The Purpose Driven Life. The whole time I read it, I kept thinking about the beautiful brown print and tree/limb/leaf/root illustrations. I have lately been inspired by Lindsey’s use of a vintage dictionary at Out of Alabaster. I was going to get rid of the book but instead I have a frame with power behind its beauty because of the truth I am reminded of as I look at it. We are created to believe what we hear and see, which is why Paul told the Roman church: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
What projects have you done that used words as part of the decoration?
When have words been powerful in your life?
I hope you enjoy these last few days of fall friends!